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Senior advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump joked about seeking asylum in Israel during a private video call six days before Republicans suffered a sweeping defeat in the midterm elections, The New York Times (NYT) reported, citing four people on the call.
"At least Bibi won. He’ll protect us," James Blair, who left the White House to oversee Trump’s midterm strategy, said sarcastically of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country had voted the day before.
"Maybe we could get asylum in Israel," Trump’s chief pollster Tony Fabrizio replied.
Netanyahu’s bloc fell short of a majority in Israel’s election, and his party later claimed the vote had been stolen.
More than two dozen of Trump's top strategists joined the call, which ran for about 30 minutes on dark humor about funeral arrangements, prison food, presidential pardons and fleeing the country.
"Do you want the white pill first, or the black pill first?" Fabrizio asked as the call began. Republican data consultant Tim Saler laid out two scenarios: an optimistic one in which the $400 million MAGA Inc. super PAC reached the voters it expected, and a wipeout.
"I’m getting my affairs in order," Blair said to laughter. "I suggest everybody else do the same."
Later, referring to a Trump ally who demanded a recount after losing a Minnesota gubernatorial primary in a landslide, Blair said: "I think we’ll just pull a Mike Lindell and demand a recount regardless of how many points we’re down."
On an earlier call, Blair said: "I have seen the enemy. And it is us." Fabrizio replied: "In many places."
A slide deck Blair circulated to West Wing officials over the summer linked Republican polling to the Iran war timeline, showing Democrats’ advantage rising during active fighting, shrinking during talks on a memorandum of understanding and spiking when the ceasefire collapsed. By late July, Democrats led the congressional ballot by 10 points.
Republicans could win the House only with Democrats’ edge at about four points, the slide said. "But that won’t happen without an extended ceasefire, Hormuz open & gas prices falling," it warned. "A final result approaching D+10 would likely cost us the Senate."
Republicans are on track to lose the national popular congressional vote by about 13 points, the worst loss in half a century, according to Times estimates.
"If we never went into Iran, what do you think would happen in the midterms?" Trump asked privately, according to a person who spoke to him.
Fabrizio's focus groups about two weeks into the war found voters did not understand why it had started and saw a broken promise raising costs. When Vance negotiated a memorandum of understanding with Iran by mid-June, voters aware of it backed it by 41 points, but the deal fell apart amid pressure from Republican hawks including Sen. Ted Cruz.
Republicans who were not planning to vote named ending the war and addressing inflation as their top two conditions to return, Trump’s pollster found two weeks before the election.
The new Congress, sworn in Jan. 3, 2027, faces a temporary funding deadline on Dec. 11, a $2 trillion budget deficit and national debt of $40.5 trillion nearing the $41.1 trillion ceiling.
Democrats are expected to target tariffs, restrict defense spending and seek to limit presidential war powers over Iran, though Trump could veto such moves. Average gasoline prices remain above $4 a gallon and diesel above $6, up 35% and 69% from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association.
The new Congress is also expected to tighten oversight of technology, artificial intelligence, data centers and cryptocurrency, and a Democratic Senate could shield Federal Reserve independence, analysts said.
Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged a moratorium on new data centers until legal safeguards are in place.
The asylum-in-Israel exchange captured the mood inside Trump’s team days before the rout.
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